Music, like a time tunnel, has the ability to transport us from one period to another, re-constructing for us emotional experiences of past generations. It has the power to teach us that our joys and sorrows, our loves and hates, are like those of other human beings of other generations. 

But in order to sense the musical experiences of the past in their full force it is not enough to perform the notes only as they appear in the score.

We in the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, like thousands of other musicians, believe that the way in which the notes are sounded, the instruments used, the performance practices that endeavor to reproduce faithfully those customary at the time the music was composed - all these features in the performance of early music enhance its musical and emotional message for modern ears.

We invite our listeners to set out with us on a journey into the wondrous and magical sound world of the 17th and 18th centuries. When played on Baroque instruments, with period performance practice. these masterpieces, some well known and others less familiar, will reveal to us the richness and strength of the emotional experience embedded in Baroque music, which has not lost its power to move us today.

Dr. David Shemer, founder, conductor and musical director of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra